tongs

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tonges, the plural of tonge, also tange,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English tang, also tange,^[6][7][8][9] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *tangu,^[1] inherited from Proto-Germanic *tangō (“tongs”).^[1][10][11] It is cognate with Old Saxon tanga, Old Frisian tange, Middle Dutch tanghe and modern Dutch tang, Old High German zanga and modern German Zange, and Old Norse tǫng, whence Swedish tång and Danish tang;^{[6][5][12][7][10]} Onions notes that the word is not recorded in Gothic.^[13] The Germanic noun is literally "that which bites", from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”),^{[12][4][14][1]} the root also of Ancient Greek δάκνω (dáknō, “to bite”) and Sanskrit दशति (dáśati, “bites”),^{[12][7][5][1]} and, in the Gheg dialect, Albanian danë (“tongs”).^[5][4] For the sense, Etymonline and Klein compare French mordache (“tongs”), from mordre (“to bite”).^[12][4] The related tang, the part of a blade fitted into the handle, represents the Old Norse form of the same noun.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A gripping tool of two hinged limbs: Old English tang and tange gloss Latin forceps in the Corpus Glossary and in Ælfric's Grammar,^[6][9] before 800 according to Barnhart.^[5] The plural form with plural meaning is already found in the Old English translation of Bede.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old English already used both the singular and the plural for one implement; the plural became the usual form, and the singular tong for the whole tool is last recorded about 1480.^[6][8] Weekley notes that the plural use is peculiar to English.^[15] In Scotland tongs was also construed as a singular from 1489, with rare plurals such as tongses,^[6][8] and since 1862 tong has been a humorous name for one leg of the tongs.^[6][8] Johnson (1755) defined it as an instrument for taking hold of things, such as coals in the fire, with quotations from Spenser and Dryden.^[16] Tongs were struck as a rough musical instrument in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1600),^[6] and the word came to stand for sugar tongs, curling tongs and other special kinds from 1713.^[6] In Australia and New Zealand tongs are also hand-shears for sheep, from the late 19th century,^[8][17] and in the oil industry a large pipe wrench, from the early 20th.^[8] A verb tong, to grip or gather with tongs, especially clams and oysters, is recorded from 1869, and to style hair with curling tongs from 1932.^[6] Northern and Scottish dialects had the forms taings, tangs and tengs, and in Shetland a taings o' fire was as much burning fuel as the tongs could carry.^[18] Bartlett (1848) records tongs as a former New England name for trousers,^[19] and Dalzell lists it as British slang for heroin, perhaps from the name of the Chinese criminal organisations, the tongs.^[20][20]

Timeline

• before 800 – Old English tang, tange, the gripping tool.^[5][6]
• c. 1250 – the plural tonges, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[5]
• c. 1386 – figurative uses and phrases, in Chaucer's Parson's Tale.^[6]
• 1489 – tongs construed as a singular, chiefly in Scotland.^[6]
• 1600 – tongs as a rough musical instrument, in A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[6]
• 1608 – the pincers of a scorpion.^[6]
• 1713 – short for sugar tongs, curling tongs and the like.^[6]
• 1862 – humorous singular tong, one leg of a pair of tongs.^[6][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gripping tool of two long arms joined at one end by a pivot, hinge or spring, used to pick up or hold things such as hot coals, logs or food; often a pair of tongs: He lifted the corn cobs off the grill with tongs.^[2][21][8]
2. Short for curling tongs, sugar tongs and the like.^[6][8]
3. (Australia and New Zealand, informal) Hand shears for shearing sheep.^[8][17]
4. (oil industry) A large wrench for joining or separating lengths of pipe.^[8]

Word family

• ice tongs
• hammer and tongs
• lazy tongs

Related words

• tang

Usage notes

Tongs is plural in form but may take a singular or plural verb;^[22] a pair of tongs is used when a number or the indefinite article is needed.^[22][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
19. ^ Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford
20. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
21. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
22. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster